'More people are creating livings from commentating on rugby now'

The new International Rugby Experience building in Limerick is set to open in the New Year. It was the venue for a conference delivered by Stats Perform. Stats perform provide data to teams, media and the betting industry. The company has a large office in Ireland and their aim is to have 60 full-time and 280 part-year staff by the end of this year. Statistics and data collection in rugby has improved a lot since the days when people had to do it all from VHS tapes. They have more stats coming down the line, such as expected points, game plan data, possession states, and information generated by artificial intelligence.